James Gurney

This daily weblog by Dinotopia creator James Gurney is for illustrators, plein-air painters, sketchers, comic artists, animators, art students, and writers. You'll find practical studio tips, insights into the making of the Dinotopia books, and first-hand reports from art schools and museums.

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or by email:gurneyjourney (at) gmail.comSorry, I can't give personal art advice or portfolio reviews. If you can, it's best to ask art questions in the blog comments.

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All images and text are copyright 2015 James Gurney and/or their respective owners. Dinotopia is a registered trademark of James Gurney. For use of text or images in traditional print media or for any commercial licensing rights, please email me for permission.

However, you can quote images or text without asking permission on your educational or non-commercial blog, website, or Facebook page as long as you give me credit and provide a link back. Students and teachers can also quote images or text for their non-commercial school activity. It's also OK to do an artistic copy of my paintings as a study exercise without asking permission.

I'll be interested in your answer to Jane's question. I'm guessing that a liberal interpretation of a "no-paint" policy would allow the water soluble pencils and a water pen, but I'd guess they'd frown on ink in the water pen (?)...

Arkaga, Christian and Mich, yes, it's an endless hall of mirrors. The self portrait behind me is of John Vanderlyn, who does seem to be watching. The nude beyond me is a copy of a Vanderlyn by Durand.

Jane, I'm using a Caran d'Ache Supracolor pencil (a dark brown) and two Niji water brushes, one with water and the other with ink. After I finished sketching, I noticed in the brochure that they have a "no pen" policy. The guards definitely noticed me sketching them, but they didn't seem bothered by my pens, either because they really weren't pens or because I was pretty careful and far from the artwork. There were painters in front of the Velazquez paintings with oil paint on brushes, so go figure on the policy.

As far as people noticing me staring at them, the art-lookers were facing away from me, and the guards just glanced and kept moving anyway. They don't really hold still for long because they have to keep moving. People sketch in the museum all the time, so you don't stand out at all.

Mike, I had #1 over the first picture, so it was easy to miss. I moved it down.

Janet, in a nutshell, it's fantastic. Really well curated, great captions. The rooms are thematic. They have quite a few plein air studies by F. Church up, and the E.A. Abbey of King Lear is featured nicely. There are amazing period rooms, too. You can easily spend a whole day just in the new American wing. And it wasn't too crowded.

But it's all just people looking, which looks like people standing, unless you somehow put them all together into one picture. I'd like to see that one. In this particular set, you are the only one who looks as though he is doing the looking with his whole self.

Last time I was at the Met, I pre-prepped some pages with a color wash and used water-soluble color pencils to sketch with. Later on, i went back in with some ink for detail. The guards allowed us to take no flash photos. This helped with the detail work.

@ james There were painters in front of the Velazquez paintings with oil paint on brushes, so go figure on the policy. You need a copying permit for that. Several NY academies are offering copying classes @ the Met.

I was lucky to do some copies there.. its' a wonderful experience.

The only other city museum i know of that allows oil copying is the under-visited hispanic society on 155 & Broadway.

How funny. I was just there today and because I was there for the new American Wing galleries, sketching paintings seemed lame to me and I considered sketching people looking at the paintings. Instead, I headed over to the Armor section and sketched that instead. My post will have to wait until tomorrow though!

Museums don't have much to fear from sketching artists, whatever media they use. Conservators have told me that the biggest threat to the artwork in a lot of museums is red wine splashed by tipsy patrons at openings.

... I forgot to mention.. insurance companies! that's why some exhibits won't even allow people to take out ANY media - pencils included!

Also at the Met for example, copy permits are only issued for paintings the musuem owns - you can't copy paintings on permanent loan - even ones that have been there for 50+ years.

James, I agree about the wine- that's one of the big scandals of museums and corporate/wealthy donor fundraisers. It's my understanding the curitorial staffs are quite demoralized by it... they expect them to clean up like janitors.